We Gather Together

Last Sunday I drew attention to 2 John 12 and 3 John 14 and the Apostle’s yearning for in-person fellowship with church leaders and congregations he’d served:  “I hope to come to you and talk face to face”; “I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”  Letters are great (even digital ones!), but physical proximity to our spiritual family members is vitally important.

Since March of 2020, however, a public health crisis has brought stay-at-home orders, quarantines, and that dreadful expression, “social distancing.”  I say “dreadful” because staying away from each other is so contrary to how we were designed (i.e., God made us to give and receive in-person spiritual encouragement within close relationships).  And yet, given the emergency situa­tion and the fact that love meant doing what had to be done to “slow the spread,” that dreadful separation was necessary.  We had to settle for “gathering” virtually via YouTube and Zoom.

But a lifestyle of remote connections inhibits healthy Christian living; stepping back from in-person gathering with your church family is not a long-term plan for spiritual health.  Indeed, it is a prescription for spiritual illness and decline.

Hebrews 10:25 pictures a church where separation was creeping in:  Do not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day draw­ing near.  Even 2,000 years ago, some Christians let the encour­agement-giving practice of meeting together fall into neglect.  What’s more, then as now, failing to gather with your church can be habit-forming; it quickly becomes the new normal.

I realize that, for some, remaining remote is due to ongoing Covid safety concerns.  Understood.  But since in-person gathering is so urgent for the health of your soul, will you join me in praying for wisdom about when and how you should step out and re-engage “face to face” with our church family?